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Mayor rescues dog that didn’t need rescuing

A Texas mayor’s love for dogs has once again gotten him in trouble — this time for trying to save a Great Dane he thought was in distress, stranded on an apartment building balcony.

As it turned out the Dane wasn’t in distress after all, but Mayor Pat Ahumada didn’t find that out, according to the Brownsville Herald, until after he scaled called for a fire department ladder and surprised the apartment owner in his kitchen.

Overzealous? Maybe a little. Still, it’s good — especially after reports about Don Call, the dog-shooting mayor in Kansas — to hear a tale about a mayor with compassion, as opposed to a murderous streak, when it comes to dogs.

According to an Associated Press report, Ahumada, mayor of Brownsville, alerted animal control, the fire department and police when he received a report from a local TV station about a dog apparently stranded on a second story balcony.

He then went to the location himself, the AP reported, scaled a fire department ladder and entered the apartment to help the dog.

“He looked to be stuck on the balcony,” Ahumada said. “I didn’t know the condition of the dog or if the building was abandoned … The animal’s paws were hanging out from the railing and he was struggling to get up.”

As it turned out, the 14-year-old dog was fine. According to his owner, he has little mobility, and enjoys passing the day on the balcony. “He broke into my house,” the owner, who asked not to be identified, said of the mayor. “My dog is very well taken care of. He shouldn’t have done that.”Brownsville’s NEWSCHANNEL 5 had an entirely different take on the incident. Its website reports that a reporter and photographer spotted the dog “dangling helplessly from a second story balcony” and rushed to the rescue. After the two were not able to locate the owner, they called Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada for help.

The mayor’s zeal for animals has caused problems before. In 2007, the city informed Ahumada that his six dogs were twice the city’s legal limit for one home. That same year, Ahumada picked up a dog thinking it was stray and gave it to a family. When the original owner asked for the dog back and the family refused, the issue ended up in court.

Two years earlier, before he was elected mayor, Ahumada was charged with theft after taking a dog from the Brownsville Animal Shelter. He claimed the dog was not being properly cared for and the charge was dismissed.